We’ve seen some weird robots before, but this one hits an 8 on the freak factor scale. Created by Raffaello D’Andrea and Max Dean, the Transformer chair looks like your grandmother’s ordinary kitchen chair, but say the magic words and it collapses itself and then transforms itself back into a chair. Don’t believe us? Check out the video after the jump. – Louis Ramirez

Cornell Robotic Chair [via CNET Crave]

Originally
from Gizmodo

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on Oct 25, 2006, 4:11AM

Originally from Gizmodo on October 25, 2006, 6:11am

Magnet Gut Video [Random Good Stuff]

Originally
from Gizmodo

reBlogged

on Oct 24, 2006, 11:00PM

Originally from Gizmodo on October 25, 2006, 1:00am

We always start our day with a glorious view of the piss-stained alley next to us, but some clever contractor in Australia designed and built a motorized house that rotates to the view of your choice (assuming you have nice views to choose from). The house is made of glass and steel and has a max speed of 1 revolution every 30 minutes. You can program it to always face the sun, or if you’re like us, to always face the homeless man who sleeps outside. There’s only one of its kind at the moment, but plans are being made to construct more rotating houses. Clever idea if you’re filthy rich.

Click on for more pics of the house you’ll never live in. – Louis Ramirez

Rotating House [via GizMag]

Originally
from Gizmodo

reBlogged

on Oct 24, 2006, 10:10PM

Originally from Gizmodo on October 25, 2006, 12:10am

Go figure, this is only available in Japan. The Navirobo Teddy Bear has a GPS module crammed where the sun don’t shine. Sit it on your dashboard and let the navigating begin. Navirobo will point you in the correct direction and dance when you arrive at the final destination. Don’t miss a turn or the Teddy Bear will laugh at you, once again reaffirming the fact that you are truly a loser. Seriously, Japan—wtf is up. This is just weird. – Travis Hudson

Navirobo GPS teddy bear [ubergizmo]

Originally
from Gizmodo

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on Oct 24, 2006, 7:45PM

Originally from Gizmodo on October 24, 2006, 9:45pm

In case you didn’t notice, those fabulous babes are holding some exceptionally slim PCs from Trigem, and they’re calling them Little Lluon+. They offer a choice of either a 1.7GHz or 2GHz Core 2 Duo processors, up to a 320GB SATA hard disk and 512MB of RAM.

The diminutive PCs are aimed at home theater users, and if they can just keep that fan noise down, these might be the worthy addition to that shelf of components. However, topping off at a hard disk capacity of 320GB, apparently these home theater PCs (HTPC) aren’t aimed at HDTV users.

Although Trigem’s a Korean company, we’re hoping US designers will follow the lead of Trigem and take notice of this pleasing form factor. Some already have. Case in point: WinBook, whose $1200 Jiv Mini HTPC is undoubtedly on the right track. Gentlemen, start your copiers, and while you’re at it, keep them quiet, and make them HDTV CableCard-ready DVRs. – Charlie White

More pics of the lovely ladies and close-ups of the PCs, after the jump.

The new Little Lluon+ with a Core 2 Duo! [Akhihabara News]

Originally
from Gizmodo

reBlogged

on Oct 24, 2006, 7:30PM

Originally from Gizmodo on October 24, 2006, 9:30pm

This week at TreeHugger: The Audi R-Zero may not be much more than a fantasy, but if we’re going to dream big, might as well dream 286 mph, 1091 horsepower, and 0-62 in 3 seconds big. Being a computer nerd can lead to greener behavior: we discover a study that shows downloading music to be environmentally preferable to the purchasing the plastic version. What does that mean for iPod? Ross Lovegrove, the “Organic Minimalist” industrial super-designer, flips the switch on the Solar Bud, a wireless, battery-less path lighting system. Lastly, a company called Alternative Energy Holdings has plans to be the first company to tap into the natural energy produced by lightning. Paging Dr. Brown, Dr. Emmett Brown…

What to say about the Audi R-Zero? Tell you the truth, we aren’t even sure it’s much more than a fantasy. But everyone needs some electric-car eyecandy now and again, and since you can’t look at naughty pictures at the office, go nuts. The R-Zero is an electric muscle car that came from the minds of three students at France’s International School of Design. Four in-wheel motors would give this car a top speed of 286 mph, 1091 horsepower, and 0-62 in 3 seconds. Whoa.

Everybody knows that the universe-altering, ultra-ubiquitous iPod just turned five years old, and with the birthday of the gadget that revolutionized the music industry, we found some good news about downloading music. According to a study we found via the Guardian, downloading music instead of picking up the plastic disc yourself is more than twice as ecologically efficient, and much easier for those of us who don’t get up from the keyboard except to go to the bathroom. The fun stops there, though; once you burn a copy, into the TreeHugger doghouse you go….

Industrial designer Ross Lovegrove, the “Organic Minimalist” we know and love for a plethora of TreeHugging designs, has done it again. Meet the Solar Bud, a handy little gadget that combines one of our favorite forms of alternative energy (solar) with a favorite light source (LEDs) to make a wireless, battery-less path and garden light. Stuck in the ground in a place that gets some sun, the lamp uses sensors to detect when darkness falls, and automatically switches on three high power red LEDs. The UFO design comes standard, too.

Lastly, from the “we’ve been waiting for this since the ’80’s” file comes word that Alternative Energy Holdings plans to be the first company to tap into the natural energy of lightning. The company says it has successfully developed a prototype which can collect power from the ground area surrounding a strike. This power can then be converted into electricity and sold through existing power grids. In 2007, during the peak lighting months of July and August, the company plans to test a mobile full-scale lightning farm. We don’t know why they don’t just stick a pole at the top of a clock tower and drive a DeLorean back & forth until it happens, but there might be some copyright infringement involved with that idea.

TreeHugger’s EcoModo column appears every Tuesday on Gizmodo.

Originally
from Gizmodo

reBlogged

on Oct 24, 2006, 7:30PM

Originally from Gizmodo on October 24, 2006, 9:30pm